You don’t need drop bars to tour but the bike you bought will be designed with those in mind. The Euros seem to manage just fine with flats, risers or butterfly bars. I’ll be doing a fair amount of road work on my El Mariachi and I’ll likely fit some TT bars for longer trips.

Otherwise, have a look at Woodchippers and a very high-rise stem, or just MTFU until your body adjusts.

They give me neck ache from having to look up. On my road bike (ancient 27″ fixed) I turned the bars upside down, back to front and chopped the ends off. Bullhorn style. I keep the flat section clear so I can ride with my hands anywhere along them and I often find myself cruising along with hands touching the stem and index fingers linked together. Which is probably stupidly dangerous.

EDIT My shoulders are under 20″ wide (I can get through a 500mm gap straight on) and my bars are 390mm (15 1/4″). I told you it was old.

I’m a pretty chunky 6 footer who windsurfs. I used to regard myself as having wide shoulders till just now!

I’d be very surprised if 46cm bars are too narrow for anyone. As a rule of thumb handlebar width should match the width of your clavicles. Basically, feel for the bony knob on each shoulder – and that’s the width.

As for comfort – road bars should be very comfortable as are a variety of hand positions – tops, hoods, drops. If you are not comfortable then you might want to consider looking at how well the bike fits you? Are the bars too low? Is the reach too long?

When you say the brakes are in the wrong spot – maybe they are, or maybe this is an indicator that your position on the bike is wrong?

What are the Midge bars like for braking & gear changing, ir_bandito? I changed largely because I found I needed to go to the drops to get decent brake purchase, which was exactly when I also wanted (commuting) to be upright. I did like being on the hoods though – seemed a perfect position for fill climbing.

I went to flat bars & Ergon grips which I like, although the bar ends are not as good as Cane Creek ergos to “get hold of” when giving it some climbing welly.

If you go back in time a bit to when bikes were the majority mode of transport, most sports type bikes had much bigger frames than we use these days. There’s nothing wrong with dropbars if they’re set up properly.

This means higher and longer headtubes. Look at old touring pics and on most of the bikes the top of the drop bar is in much the same height as the saddle. That lets you cruise all day in a comfortable position but lets you get down to it if you want a bit of speed or hit a headwind.

Fashion these days dictates that bars and stem should be slammed – that’s only good for genuine racers or those trendy chaps who want to look like a monkey pleasuring a coconut.

Ton, I reckon your frame is much too small for touring with deep drops. Try a set of North Road bars – you can flip them up if the down position is too uncomfortable.

Midge bars are not the answer to your problem here Ton. I used a set on a cross bike I borrowed and while the width was (sort of) welcome the drop and brake position is awful if you have hands larger than a size medium. I found my hands scrunched up and aching (I use the drops a lot on normal bars) as the curve is very small and doesn’t leave space for a big hand. Your hands are then angled horribly on the hoods and reaching the brake levers is a pain. The levers are also about four yards from the bar in the drop position. And the top is very narrow, so when you want a comfy, upright, touring position you’ve only got 38cm to play with.

I’d go for a higher rise stem on that bike (for you, what with being a giant, everyone else can MTFU). Since you need a new stem, these come in 48cm and may help-

Took me well over a year to get my touring bike (with drops) set up perfectly, as it was completely new to me.
I was methodically making small changes and one day it just felt right.
Patience paid off, it’s now dead comfy for bimbling around for a week or so… 🙂